President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Nearly everyone I know working the trades in non-union states might be making decent money, but getting a pittance in vacation and sick hours, with ridiculously horrible insurance and little to no retirement plan.

"Join the military, take out student loans, or be prepared to slave away at a blue collar job until the day you die," seems to be the choice we're presenting young people.

 

Because of working in newspapers, I basically kept getting forbearance after forbearance until I was close to 30. I probably didn't start paying those loans off in earnest until I was in my 30s. Didn't get them fully paid off until my early 40s. So that age range tracks, at least in my experience.

 

Just turned 46 in August and I bust out laughing at the revisionist history being presented by my mom and her sister at family holidays when current events talk starts and we ultimately roll around to, "these kids today don't want to get their hands dirty!!!1!!!" Bullshit. Growing up in western PA in the 70s and 80s, we watched the mills close and the good union jobs go away. Additionally, parents wanted better for their kids than the back-breaking labor that U.S. Steel offered anyways, and so you were TOLD you were going to college after high school. I know I was and I'm sure my friends were as well. You were going to go further than your parents, be better educated and get a better job. It was pounded into us, much like their parents pounded it into them. Now, all of the sudden, they want to act like everyone is lazy, shiftless and "doesn't want to work hard anymore." Again, bullshit. We were conditioned for decades to, for lack of a better term look down on those jobs.

 

Oh, there’s one other choice: “Have rich parents.”

 

Hurrah, Hurrah, etc.

8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God.

 

He's got a (terrible) point

Sean Hannity Gripes That His Low-Wage Staffers Will Receive Student Loan Relief

 

Went to community college for two years. Paid for the first couple semesters out of pocket and then lost my full-time job. The rest ended up costing me about $10k, and I freelanced the entire time to pay the rent.

Went to State U for two years. Left with a bit over $20k in loans, had some Pell grants and stipends from the student paper that helped.

Yeah, I made the decision to do that to minimize debt. I have somewhere between $7k and $8k left.

Even if I'd gone balls to the wall and chose a more expensive school for a worthless journalism degree, this wouldn't be life-changing. I'd probably still be $15k in the hole even with this move. Helpful, sure. But not an extreme change.

At my last journalism gig, I worked with someone who took out $100,000 in loans. I wouldn't do it, but that's me. She was 24 and paying the interest and that's it. Let's say she's paid $10k since (generous) and she's getting a $20k break. She's still looking at $70k or more plus interest for the next 15 years. We're not talking about a handout.

 

My dad was an electrician for 40 yrs. As I said in his eulogy I learned what hard work was from him and I saw him come home every day with his lunch box, coffee thermos and his dirt filled clothes. I respected the hell out of what he did (and his fellow tradesmen) but I said I don’t want to break my back if I don’t have to.

The building trades are good jobs but they’re hard on your body.

 

It also ignores that some folks take out loans to go to trade schools. HVAC and welding schools ain’t cheap.

 

And many of the trade schools are owned by for-profits who'll prey on students desperate to move up into the middle class, tossing them onto the street with a degree — if the school doesn't go tits up while they're in there — and no services to find a job.

FTC Targets False Claims by For-Profit Colleges

I admire anyone who works in the trades. My mind isn't set up to work that way. They can take all of my money and do all of the things that if I did, my house would burn down in 42 seconds.